Baby walker seat

Colin loved being placed in the walker before he started walking. He bounced a lot in excitement when he realised he could stand on something called 'legs'. A few weeks later, we removed the walker's base mat for him to run and glide around the house with his legs, which pretty much amused him and sent him into smiles and laughters.

Barely 2 months after getting him the walker, the fabric showed signs of fabric stress. I could see the loosening of fabric weaves near the groin area. A few days later, this was what it became. We had 2 options - (1) purchase another walker or (2) take up the challenge and sew a replacement. I told Boon, "Since we will have to get a new walker, then might as well let me try making one. We can get a new walker if I fail...".

So my challenge began... First, a picture of how the damaged seat looked like.

My plan was to do reverse engineering. Before I started taking it apart, I took many pictures of the seat. Front view, back view, inner view, side views,  bottom view. As many as I could so it is easy to see how it looked like before being disassembled. 

Then I started unpicking slowly.. and taking pictures as I went along.

Then I laid my 'pattern blocks' onto the new fabric (Michael Miller's) and batting, leaving 1.5cm seam allowance, and cut both fabric and batting together, then got started sew happy!

I could only sew after Colin goes to bed, with a bed light lamp and machine's light. This is the final product 2 weeks later. :) Much prettier and more durable than the previous seat. The only thing I reused was the light blue trim.

Inner view. Not the best sew lines... Reinforced the sides to prevent snapping of thread.

Top view. Noticed how I painstakingly matched the circles? Am happy with the result. :))

The greatest challenge was sewing the trims when it got to the top. I had to exert a lot of energy to compress the foam so that it could go under the needles. Glad it all worked out without any needle breaking incident.

A great experience!

Long Scrap Wrap

I have many long scraps from previous projects which I can't bear to throw away. Okay, not just the long scraps that I don't throw, the smaller 2" by 2" scarps sits in my little box too. That little piece might come in useful for fabric buttons, don't you think so? :D

Anyway, I just came back from Australia and was thinking how I should wrap the pens that didn't come with packaging. The long scraps came into my mind immediately. This was what I achieved on 2nd try using fabric scarps from my Peasant Dress.

Basically, wrap across to cover both ends of the pens, then wrap around like how you would with badminton racquet grips, ensuring sufficient overlapping of fabrics (about 1cm for this project), finish it with tucking in the end of the fabric into one end of the pen using pointed tool.

Next, use fabric paint to drop a little note. :) Tip: Use tooth pick or satay sticks to write with fabric paint. I find it much neater compared to brush.

All ready to go to its new owner! :D

Brother 3034D

Remember the post on my new addition? I found time to explore it a little on Christmas eve in the midst of packing my terribly messed up sewing nook (so that my guests that evening wouldn't drop their jaws at that ugly sighting). Well, I unloaded 2 boxes of fabrics and loaded it into the wardrobe. Then I decided I needed something prevent dust from settling on my fabrics. And the patchwork blocks made 5 years ago called out to me immediately. 

I jumped at the chance to serge the blocks together! :)) Let the pictures do the talking! 

4 thread overlocking stitch, meant for jerseys, but I was too lazy to remove 1 thread. 

Another view.

What a therapeutic experience! Gosh, I got addicted after serging 6 blocks, I had to try the hem stitch to prevent the seams from fraying or just for decoration. 

Close up.

Another view.

This machine is good enough for a novice. It's easy to thread following the colour coding. I'm loving it. =D

Burdastyle Projects

You can imagine how happy I am to finally finish clicking through all 1791 pages of Burdastyle projects uploaded. It took me almost 4 months in all. I have no idea how many years Burdastyle has been up, but I was brought through a couple of seasons as I surfed. I could feel the transition of seasons just by looking at the type of projects completed, cool? Not just the seasons, also the festives! From Easter to Halloween and Christmas.

The journey was inspiring; to see so many sewing enthusiasts (many self taught) sharing their creations, patterns and techniques. I especially enjoy seeing how 1 pattern could be morphed into many variants, oh, and also how other people put fabrics together. Sharing with you some of my favorites!

What's next? I'm going to pack that messy sewing nook of mine and start sewing! :D

Fabric Bookmark

My colleague recently developed a passion for reading and she used receipts to bookmark (then had the hardest time looking for the thin slip of paper afterwards). I made her a personalised fabric bookmark, in her favorite hot pink colour, as an encouragement to continue reading. She loved it!

She can display her pretty name by the side of the book or...

at the top. Whatever makes her happy! :)

Apologies for the bad pictures taken in the night cause I intended to give her the bookmark the morning after making it.

I used cotton-polyester with medium interface, which also doubled up as stabilizer for the embroidery.